After a lot of surfing and testing, I’m pretty sure I’m a tenor and I was learning Bohemian Rhapsody but an octave lower (thanks to my outdated and misunderstood ability to read sheet music from 7th grade). It always felt like I’m getting the notes right and the vibe wrong. I’ve put Freddie’s voice against vocalpitchmonitor app and saw that it was actually an octave higher than where i was singing. So I tried but I sounded like a woman. Then I learnt that there’s chest voice and head voice and mixed. I could only push upto D4 with my chest voice but with a little bit of daily practice, I can produce vowels upto G#4 and currently I’m learning to sing those notes with the least stress possible and I’m getting there after watching tons of tutorials on how to do it. [It’s a combo of the air from the tummy and the squeezing of vocal cords if you’re curious]
I almost got it. But I monitor my pitch when I practice and when I was doing a vocal exercise, sometimes I’d move my tongue to the back unconsciously (not all the way, but a little concaved on the front and flat at the back, like a flat skippable rock with a concave dent on one end). And I’d see that the wave or the pitch line would go high, skipping a few notes. This is happening when I’m training on using mixed voice mostly.
I was quite surprised that it had very minimal stress. But all I know for now is that it is only possible to generate the notes. Not sing them yet. Even with my head voice. F5 or F#5 is as far as my head voice goes if I try to sing some words before it sounds like I’m yelling.
It’s stupid to think that I’ll be able to sing at around C6 or smth comfortably but if I can generate frequencies at that level, I should be able to sing above C5 with my head voice if I applied the appropriate technique for the head voice. I’m here to ask that question. I cannot afford lessons. What can I do to train myself to be able to comfortably sing in that region? As for the chest voice, I’m seeing progress with daily practice and that too with little care to my throat. I’ll quit soft drinks and oily food for improvement.
Obviously this is not a singing community but plenty of us do sing. I know a little bit about the theory of singing.
First of all do you really know your voice type, a typical tenor is the range is up to C5 so C6 would be well outside what a typical tenor can do. Plenty of apps will give you your singing range.
A word of caution straining your voice can do damage to your vocal cords, if you are intent on singing so high I think you should really take professional advice if you can afford it from a singing teacher or vocal coach. If not there are free lessons on YouTube but be careful some are better than others.
It is but I thought you wanted to go beyond C5. If you can’t get to C5 you might not be a typical tenor, or at least not without some guidance. The typical quoted ranges are only a very rough guide to make a classification.
Michael is right in that we are a guitar community rather than a singing community. So please don’t expect any pro advice here and rather check singing communities for any in depth answers.
Also, he is right regarding straining your voice by applying false techniques, please be careful with that. You can really damage your vocal cords, especially when pushing for mixed voice this tends to happen. So I just want to second those points.
Regards your question: The answer is using/practicing singing in the head register, applying correct technique there, but doing it with care and only for short time in the beginning.
It has a lot to do with the placement of the larynx/vocal apparatus, which you already noticed by accidently pushing your tongue back. It takes a lot of practice to really control these things and I also would go for professional guidance in this regard. If not already done, check out Chris Liepe’s programs. It’s not totally for free, but at least less costly than in person instruction and his content is really good and most of all, it’s serious. And within his community, you also can address these questions, too. Good luck!
